The use of smokers for curing meat has existed, perhaps, as long as civilization has used fire to cook meat. In the more recent past, various structures have been devised to simultaneously provide control over both the cooking fire, so as to control the cooking rate, and also over the smoke expelled to provide back-pressure control. Smoke from the coals and the meat drippings flavor the meat with a smoky flavor and brown color that many people associate with properly cooked meat.
Many of the known prior art devices have drawbacks which include the inability to control the rate at which the fire burns precisely, the inability to control the rate at which the smoke passes from within the cooker to the outside environment, and the means by which the temperature at which the meat can be cooked can be controlled. Maintenance, such as cleaning these cookers and removing ashes that build up as a function of time, have also made some cooker styles less desireable than others.
The instant invention is distinguished over the known prior art in that a cooking instrumentality has been provided which is formed as an enclosure, having an openable front wall, allowing communication to the interior of the enclosure, along with appropriate support shelves and rods to place the meat to be cooked at a desired height with respect to the charcoal or wood being used for precision cooking. A container is disposed at a bottom portion of the interior, adapted to receive therewithin charcoal or wood, which in turn imparts a characteristic flavor to the meat being cooked. Immediately underlying the container which holds with wood or charcoal, a burner is provided not only to facilitate lighting the charcoal or wood, but also to control the temperature at which the fire burns during the course of the cooking process. Various instrumentalities are provided on upper portions of the enclosure to monitor the temperature at which the meat is being cooked and to control this temperature by constricting the rate at which built-up smoke egresses from the interior of the enclosure. In this manner, the varied requirements which change as a function of the meat being cooked can be taken into consideration so that the cooked meat has the desired properties of tenderness, succulence, etc.